Facebook beats expectations on revenue growth, showing promise the worst of the pandemic slowdown is in the past (FB)

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Facebook announced better-than-expected revenue and user numbers Thursday for its third-quarter earnings, showing the social network is starting to recover from the coronavirus-related economic downturn.

Facebook generated around $21.5 billion in revenue in Q3 2020, up 22% year-on-year. 

Although the coronavirus pandemic initially signaled a slowdown in digital advertising, the recovering economy has shown a reversed course for digital ad spending. Wall Street expects growth in Facebook's revenue in Q3 2020 as a result.

Here are the key numbers, as well as what Wall Street was expecting:

• Revenue: $21.47 billion, up 22% year-on-year ($19.84 billion expected)
• Daily Active Users: 1.82 billion, up 12% year-on-year (1.78 billion expected)
• Monthly Active Users: 2.74 billion, up 12% year-on-year (2.70 billion expected)
• Earnings Per Share (EPS) GAAP: $2.71 ($1.91 expected)

Facebook is just one of the tech companies, alongside Apple and Alphabet, reporting their third-quarter earnings Thursday. Last week, Snap was among the first Silicon Valley players to reveal its revenue and user numbers for Q3, and its better-than-expected results may help to inspire optimism in the numbers to come down the line.

Nevertheless, Facebook is still grappling with criticism it's received over its handling of political content on the platform with less than a week before Election Day. Facebook did face off against a mass advertiser boycott over its policies in Q2 and Q3, but it's unclear whether the movement had a significant detrimental impact on the company's revenue.

Last quarter, Facebook revealed it officially crossed the benchmark of 3 billion monthly users across its family of apps, which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

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